1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to printed circuit boards and, in particular, to a printed circuit board construction supporting different types of chassis connector panels. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a printed circuit board construction including a main board portion and a breakaway board portion, coupled to the main board portion utilizing perforations, for supporting different types of chassis connector panels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer system typically includes a graphics card. In the preferred embodiment, the graphics card is an AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) card. An AGP card may be either an ATX type card, or an NLX type card.
The ATX type card (i.e. ATX AGP card) includes two connectors being received by an ATX connector panel within the computer's chassis. The ATX AGP connectors are disposed vertically, one directly above the other. The NLX type card (i.e. NLX AGP card) includes two connectors being received by an NLX connector panel within the computer's chassis. The NLX connectors are disposed parallel to each other in a side-by-side manner, one approximately horizontally level with the other.
In order to accommodate either standard, a manufacturer of a graphics card must manufacture two different types of cards. The first card is a single printed circuit board, an ATX AGP card, having two connectors, one disposed vertically above the other on an edge of the printed circuit board. The second card is a two printed circuit board construction, an NLX AGP card construction, having two connectors, one on the edge of each printed circuit board. One board is mounted on the other such that the two connectors are disposed parallel to each other in a side-by-side manner with one approximately horizontally level with the other.
It greatly increases the manufacturing costs to manufacture two different printed circuit board constructions, particularly where the boards have the same functionality.